Dom Druzei/Friends House Moscow News & Staff Report

dd.moskva@gmail.com www.friendshousemoscow.org

Supporting social tools for our deepest values Alternatives to Violence Program

December 2011

tacked, and battled for four days. Two AVP facilitators, Marina Lyubogradova and Galya Lopotko, spent 2 weeks this past summer in S. For the first time in twenty years, Nana had a good Ossetia, giving AVP nights sleep. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, workshops, including which released at times violent tensions in her native the 3-day basic workGeorgia, she had woken up at every little sound, thinkshop that Nana attening, Is that the war again? So she baked a cake to thank the Alternatives to Viol- ded. Marina described ence Program facilitators who helped her. Now a retiree its capital as still lookin South Ossetia, Nana ing like a set for a war Galya Lopotko during an AVP movie buildings (not her real name) spent half her months - continued on page two workshop in South Ossetia. pension to make that single cake. FHM Supports Conscientious Objectors Nana is Georgian, but her husband was Russian. Like many citizens of the former USSR, they had a difficult decision to make With assistance from Friends House Moscow and after the breakup of the other sources, Gyerman Alyotkin and his wife Nina USSR where would they live? They decided Pisanova of Kazan, Russia, have spent years ministering Marina Lyubogradova during a to the needs of conscientious objectors and those called to move to nearby S. workshop. Due to the political ten- Ossetia, where Nana up illegally. Those who choose alternative service today sions in the area, we can not show lived on edge. S. Osse- are a small stream that can become a mighty river of photos of participants. people who renounce violence as a central principle of tians speak a language related to Persian, so she their lives, Gyerman says. Every Russian man from 18 to 27 must serve one was easily identifiable as Georgian. In 2008, Georgian troops launched a military attack and Russia counter-at- year. However, Article 59 of the Russian Constitution - continued on page three

FHM supports AVP Workshops in War-Torn Areas

A Mighty River of People

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- AVP, continued from page one without roofs, others without walls, etc. Cold water only ran for just two hours a day at which point Marina and Galya had to hurry back to their room to fill their bathtubs for the days needs, just like most locals. Still claimed by Georgia, S. Ossetia is now an independent state, although unrecognized by most nations. However, Russia has given Russian citizenship to most

The FSB Russian Federal Security Service believe that the 2010 suicide bombings in the Moscow metro were carried out by two women from Dagestan. Fortytwo people were killed in the bombing and resulting stampede.

supporting social tools for our deepest values

Overcoming suspicion
So its not suprising that unlike in S. Ossetia, Marina and Galya sometimes felt the antipathy toward ethnic Russians. One teen said, You will never understand us because you are an adult and because you are from Moscow. So they organized the group into pairs to discuss stereotypes. In the large group discussion following, one boy said, People in Russia hate us. Others said, Your people judge our people from TV. Galya pointed out that Dagestanis judge Russians from TV as well, and that media in both regions use and further stereotypes about each other. We ended up agreeing about how stereotypes are treated and accepted, and that its important to talk to each other, to lay aside the stereotypes each nationality has about the other, Galya said. "Conversations like that one make it all worthwhile."

S.Ossetians. It is an uneasy peace, and locals wonder when the next war might start.

Dealing with memories of war

Galya and Marina found that draftees who attended her workshops had suffered in other ways, too. We had special conversations with the soldiers, Galya said, because they felt there had been people they hadnt been able to save, and it was weighing on them. They had been young civilians in the war, but still they had felt responsibility. Galya developed a meditation on powerlessness for the soldiers, and created an exercise to help them keep a sense of dignity while talking about their feelings. Galya and Marina also gave workshops on Guilt and Hurtfulness, AVP thematic workshops which Galya developed.

About AVP
AVP was initially developed in 1975 for prisoners in the U.S. It is now in use in over 50 countries. It is an informal, low-cost and highly effective method of helping people sift through their experiences of conflict and high emotion, and learn better methods of communicating and resolving conflict without using violence or verbal abuse. All told, AVP Russia has given 29 workshops so far in 2011 in the FHM office, in schools, an orphanage, an army base, community centers. These were held in St. Petersburg, Moscow, S. Ossetia and Dagestan. FHM recently received a generous grant from The Network for Social Change for AVP Russia for 2012. FHM also helps support AVP Ukraine, thanks to the generosity of the Molly Bown Trust. AVP Ukraine has so far given 83 workshops for children and teens, and 22 workshops for adults in 2011.

AVP in low-level guerrilla war

Last summer, Galya and Marina also spent two weeks giving workshops in neighboring Dagestan, a largely Muslim republic within Russia which has had a separatist movement for centuries, going back to the Russian Empire. Its now low-level guerrilla war, a running fight between terrorists and paramilitary police.

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Alternative Service, continued from page 1

supporting social tools for our deepest values

guarantees the right to alternative service in case his convictions or religious belief contradict military service.... According to Vitali Adamenko, a FHM partner in Samara, Russia, local conscription boards may not know that this right exists they may not know how to arrange for alternative civilian service and, under pressure to fill recruitment quotas, they may not follow their own laws.

Illegal Actions by Draft Commissions Alleged

I told them I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars and I knew from whence all wars did rise, from the lust according to Jamess doctrine. [James 4:1-2]... I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strifes were.

This pressure to fill quotas often leads to sweeps of local malls and other other public areas. According to Columbia Universitys Journal of International Affairs, in its article The Russian Soldier Today (Spring/Summer 2010), its not unheard of for young men to be picked up on the street, in the metro, or from their apartments and taken, often by force, to military enlistment offices for a quick review and deportation to the designated base. The article also describes well-established methods of avoiding the draft: bribing the medical authorities or the draft commission officials for about $10,000. Those left to serve are disproportionately from middle and lower income families.

Hazing of New Draftees

The desperation and the high price comes because of potential recruits well-founded fear of the dangers of military service, where hazing and suicide account for far more victims than field casualties. Indeed, the casualties from ritualized hazing, called dedovshchina, are well-documented. According to the Human Rights Watch Report, The Wrongs of Passage,

- George Fox to the military recruiters of his day.

Dedovshchina establishes an informal hierarchy of conscripts, based on the length of their service, and a corresponding set of rights and duties for each group Newcomers have essentially no rights they must earn them
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Vitali Adamenko relaxes with Skripatchka, Johan and Judy Maurer's cat, at their home near Moscow.

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over time. [They] are not eligible to eat, wash, relax, sleep, be sick, or even keep track of time. Dedovshchina is distinguished by predation, violence, and impunity. [New] conscripts live under the constant threat of violence for failing to comply with limitless orders and demands of dedy [senior conscripts].

supporting social tools for our deepest values

For Our Sons

Its not surprising then that Gyerman Alyotkin and his wife Nina Pisanovas office, For Our Sons, is busy. Their log for the first half of 2011 reveals over 400 contacts, some of which require just three hours of counseling and help filling out forms others are part of a multi-year series of appeals. Some judges dismiss appeals outright based on personal prejudice (Everyone should serve regardless of what the law says). Other judges, however, use the Alyotkin/Pisanova briefs as the text for their own opinions. The majority of conscientious applicants for alternat-

Gyerman, Judy Maurer (editor of this newsletter), Gyermans wife Nina Pisanova, FHM staff member Natasha Zhuravenkova, FHM board member Lynn Chakoian in Gyerman and Ninas office.

for alternative service increased 170% in 2010-11, also according to the Federal Labor Service. However, the numbers are still low: only 294 alternative service applications were approved in the spring 2011 call-up.

Telling young men of faith

about their rights

Gyermans and Vitali Adamenkos publication, Alternativshik, is aimed especially at members of these religious groups. Its goal is to increase the number of young men applying for and receiving alternative service. Nina tells of one case that took three years to resolve in their favor. Now, sometimes appeal boards agree with us just to get us off their backs, Nina said. Sergei Grushko, FHM director, and Vitali Adamenko in Vitali reports that in the recent glare of local publithe FHM office in Moscow. city from Samaras human rights workers and journalists, ive service are religious 80% according to Russias Fed- 22 local young men were given alternative service. This eral Labor Service (Rostrud) of whom in turn about 80% level of interest in alternative service is a new phenomenon, reports Vitali. are Jehovahs Witnesses. Most of the rest are Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists. The number of applicants
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Friends House Moscow

supporting social tools for our deepest values

Brief and newsworthy:

Seventeen Friends representing five countries met in Kremenchuk, Ukraine for a three-day conference, October 21 - 23. Johan Maurer presented Thomas Kellys essay The Gathered Meeting, translated by Natasha Zhuravenkova, staff member at Friends House Moscow. They had worship sharing on Quaker faith and practice, and gathered together in a spirit of peace. Friends World Committee European & Middle East Section helped sponsor the conference. Its now possible to keep in touch with Friends House Moscow and interesting news of Russia as well. Sign up with friends of Friends House Moscow, a new online forum for supporters of FHM. The Russia Watch section has been particularly interesting of late. It's at http://groupspaces.com/fofhm. Moscows Centre for Judicial and Legal Reform has received a six-month grant through FHM of 3,200 for conferences and seminars for juvenile justice workers in Russia. A national conference on restorative justice was held in June, with 124 in attendance. Many attenders work for state commissions responsible young offenders. The center believes its imperative for professionals working with young offenders to use mediation and reconciliation. Its generally the

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FHM relies on donations from individuals, foundations and monthly & yearly meetings to support projects that promote peace and civil society in the former Soviet Union.
You may donate on-line at www.friendshousemoscow.org or send donations to:
Friends House Moscow Support Association PO Box 60253 Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA Donations to the above address or on-line are tax-deductible on U.S tax returns, to the extent allowed by law.

In Europe Treasurer, Friends House Moscow; Brynmawr, Westbourne Drive, Lancaster LA1 5EE, U.K.
custom instead to focus exclusively on punishment and threats. This project was supported by the BEARR Trust Small Grants Scheme, with finance from Baker Botts Moscow Office.

From the USA: Bill Bauriedel (Pacific Yearly Meeting), Lynn Chakoian (Northern YM), Johan and Judy Maurer (Northwest YM & Moscow Monthly Meeting), Julie Harlow (Pacific YM), Patricia Stewart (Philadelphia YM) From Great Britain: Patricia Cockrell, Peter Dyson, James Eddington, Roswitha Jarman, Mary Morris (co-clerk), Daphne Sanders (co-clerk), Jane-Eve Straughton (all of Britain YM) Jenny Haward From Russia: Sergei Nikitin, Marina Lybogradova From Germany: Juergen Menzel (German Yearly Meeting)
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Board Members of Friends House Moscow for 2012

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supporting social tools for our deepest values

On Nov. 4th, a memorial stone to the victims of famines in 1921-23 and the early 1930s was dedicated in the small city of Buzuluk in south-central Russia. We have seen a very important milestone in our history in Buzuluk, and this will surely allow us to make sense of our past, local historian Sergei Kolychev said. From 1921 to 1927, teams of British and U.S. Quakers ran feeding programs for 357,000 people at their peak in the Buzuluk area. In Kolychevs view, Quakers saved the population of the district from total annihilation. Friends ran 1,000 feeding centers, a hospital, over 40 malaria clinics, and a number of childrens homes they taught tractor mechanics, bought and sold horses, organized employment, and advocated passionately for Russian relief. For details, see Constructive Spirit: Quakers in Revolutionary Russia, by David McFadden and Claire Gorfinkel. Many historians attribute the famine to drought and Above: Buzuluks Lenin Square after the May 1, 2011 Soviet seizures celebration of International Workers Day. Left: Stained glass of grain, inwindows in the train station. Figure on far right in window cluding seed represents cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, born near Buzuluk. grain, to feed the cities. Soviet textbooks, however, said Photos by Judy Maurer the famine was the result of anti-revolutionary agitators and wealthy peasants who hid excess stores of grain. In the Soviet version, heroic Bolshevik troops did their best to round up grain for the people. Quaker and other foreign relief efforts were not mentioned. To help Russians reclaim their own history, Kolychev wants to continue research on famine relief efforts in the Buzuluk area and publish a book with large photographs for the general reader. Kolychev has his work cut out for him. A city official at the dedication identified the leader of the Quaker effort as the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, whose actual role was to lead a team of League of Nations visitors.

Quaker Famine Relief Efforts Remembered

The board of FHM is committed to keeping administrative costs at the lowest level possible, while maintaining the ability to supervise projects well. This allows donor funds to go to projects as much as possible, and that these funds are used well by projects. However, one problem we encountered this year is that the Russian government increased the percentage of employee payroll taxes from 21.6 % to 34.2%! This naturally has increased FHM administrative costs, and

Administrative Cost Control

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we wanted you to know about it. We are therefore looking for new donors and increased donations so that the projects can still FHM Assistant Director Natasha be funded at a Zhuravenkova, reflected in office mirror. good level. Photo by Lynn Chakoian. Please let your friends know about Friends House Moscow!

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Teaching young adults to read, then go to college

Big Change, a nonprofit in Moscow, provides small classes for orphanage graduates to learn life skills and earn a high school diploma, to have a chance at normal life, with a job, an apartment, a family of their own. In Russia, 75% of orphans (most of whom have been removed by the state from their families) are placed in remedial orphanages which do not provide the education necessary even for a low-level job. So it was quite a celebration when 17 Big Change students graduated last June, after passing their 11th form state exams, equivalent to a high school diploma. All 17 graduates will continue on to higher education! One studied at Big Change for eight years when she

came she could barely read. Eight more students passed their 9th form exam. Last year, Big Change began taking younger students who are still in orphanages. Luda, a new student, is 15. She must leave the orphanage in three years. But she cant yet really read. FHM gave seed money for Big Changes first few years of operation beginning in 2002, before it had a track record for other funding. This year, FHM is funding their Resource Center.

supporting social tools for our deepest values

Keeping children out of orphanages

The School for Foster Care

A retired juvenile police officer in Dzerzhinsk, Russia, coordinates an innovative program to help children stay with extended families instead of in orphanages. Generally in Russia, children removed from families due to abuse or neglect are sent to orphanages. The School for Foster Care is a project by the Centre for Psychological-Medical-Social Support for Children & Youth in Dzerzhinsk, Russia. It provides a seminars on child development for foster care and adoptive parents. Foster parents receive financial support from the state, but nothing else no education, training, support, etc. This year, the School decided to provide the same Richard Kilbey, a British Quaker relief worker in the Buzuluk area, painted scenes only of the ongoing life around him, refusing to record the scenes of tragedy and death. See image below. information on child development to foster parents as adoptive parents receive, but in an atmosphere of an ongoing support group. This will allow them to ask questions about their children, get support and advice, etc. The Centre hopes to develop a model which would become standard, and supported by the state, thereby transforming the lives of even more children. FHM funds the entire budget of The School for Foster Care.

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Friends House Moscow is a small non-profit which funds projects for peace and civil society in the former Soviet Union.
Inside this newsletter: Alternatives to Violence in a fragile peace: South Ossetia For Our Sons: Helping Conscientious Objectors in Russia Remembering Quaker Famine Relief Efforts in the Volga Basin Teaching orphanage graduates how to read then go to college If you would prefer to receive this newsletter by email, please let us know at fhmus@sbcglobal.net page one page one page five page seven

Friends House Moscow Support Association c/o Julie Harlow 1163 Auburn Drive Davis, CA 95616